Clients DNS problem

Hoping someone out there can help me.

I have only a couple of clients on my server. I recently went with another provider of dedicated servers, according to them it is all set up correctly with a new dns.

However, since I moved to it, a couple of my clients sometimes (more often than not) cannot see their sites at all without putting in the ip address, which is obviously annoying them no end. At the same time this happens they cannot access their mail either without going to the webmail facility. The tech staff say there is nothing wrong with the setup and it is showing nothing in any of the usual dns check-ups. They are having the problem looking at all sites on the server, not just their own.

The tech staff have said it is most probably at their isp, although it is 2 different isps. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated. If the problem is at the isp's, what would be the best thing to say to them.

The domains in question are http://www.honest-e.com and a few others.

Lynnette

The issue could be with the DNS cache they are using to resolve their DNS. Right now, I can resolve the A and MX records for honest-e.com using ns1.hannonweb2.net and ns2.hannonweb2.net (the authorative servers for that domain).

When your clients report this problem, you could try doing a DNS lookup yourself:

The output should be something like:

If the "answer" section is missing, or if the query hangs for ages, then the problem is most probably with the ISP's (hannonweb2's) DNS servers, and you should avail upon them to resolve the issue.

If the query returns the answer section, then the problem is most likely with your client's DNS cache. If they can run the dig query and get the same results as you, then this is almost certainly the case. In this instance, you should either avail upon the DNS cache administrator to fix their DNS cache, or use a different DNS cache.

Thank you so much for your fast answer.

When the tech people told me to do dig, they told me to do just dig honest-e.com and it comes up with the following: (I have just copied a bit of it)

[root@server145]# dig honest-e.com

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;honest-e.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
honest-e.com. 14400 IN A 66.246.41.61

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
honest-e.com. 14400 IN NS ns2.hannonweb2.net.
honest-e.com. 14400 IN NS ns1.hannonweb2.net.

;; Query time: 2 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Sun Jul 6 12:57:27 2003
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 96


They said that it meant everything was ok on the server.

If, however I put in the code you suggest, it comes up with:

dig: Couldn't find server 'ns1.hannonweb2.net. ': Name or service not known.


Lynnette

It seems you're having problems resolving the IP of hannonweb2's authorative DNS servers.

The output of the "dig honest-e.com" command is correct, though it contacts your DNS cache (in /etc/resolv.conf) for the answer, rather than the hannonweb2 servers.

I strongly suspect the problem lies with your DNS cache. Post the contents of your /etc/resolv.conf file.

This seems extremely strange but this is the contents of the resolv.conf file on my server:

domain darkorb.net
search darkorb.net
nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver 66.197.217.11
nameserver 66.197.217.12

which bears no relation at all to my ip addresses which are 66.246.41.61 and 66.246.41.62

Thanks so much for your help on this, what do you suggest I do now.

Lynnette

paste the contents of your hosts file (/etc/hosts). Also tell us the IP's your ISP gives you for DNS servers.

*EDIT*

I think I found the problem, or at least part of it. You have the DNS server names and IP's returned by the registrar just fine as shown:

http://www.dollardns.net/cgi-bin/DN...ype=A&submit=DS

BUT... doing a search for 'ns1.hannonweb2.net' for example returns "Name Not Found"

http://www.dollardns.net/cgi-bin/DN...&lr=3&submit=DS

And here we see why when the zone returned by ns1.hannonweb2.net does not include 'A' records for ns1 and ns2:

http://www.dollardns.net/cgi-bin/DN...2.net&submit=DS

When the registrar returns the IP, but the IP is not found in the zone file, it may cause intermittant problems.

Thank you so much for all your help everyone I really appreciate it.

The contents of the /etc/hosts file is:

# Do not remove the following line or various programs
# that require network funtionality will fail.

66.246.41.61 server145.hannonweb2.net server145 server3.servercentre.com server145.mbonnerenterprises.com

127.0.0.1 localhost

Also, this is what the isp gave me

Your DNS names and IP's are

ns1.hannonweb2.net at IP 66.246.41.61
ns2.hannonweb2.net at IP 66.246.41.62
Thanks again
Lynnette

You need to add the 'A' records for the ns1 and ns2 hosts under the hannonweb2.net zone. Or is that not your zone?

Yes that is my zone.

I am a relative newbie to all this, if you wouldn't mind telling me, how to I go about doing this. Sorry to sound so dumb.

Thanks again.
Lynnette

$ORIGIN hannonweb2.net.

ftp IN A 66.246.41.61

In the above record you have set the IP address for ftp.hannonweb2.net. Similarily you need to add the IP address for your DNS servers in the same file.

ns1 IN A 66.246.41.61
ns2 IN A 66.246.41.62

Thanks so much for all your help. I did it and fingers crossed that is works ok.




Lynnette